Chapter 10

After a leisurely breakfast the next morning, Betty, Misty, and their helpers set up an area to work on the translation. While they were busy doing that, Cindy, Kendrick, I, and our bodyguards left to go to the Guild Office.

We only had a short trip to get to our destination, and when we arrived, we went directly to the reception area of Guild Master Kevin Moore’s office. My bodyguards insisted on checking the area before I entered, which alerted Ann Tinny, Kevin’s secretary, to my arrival. When I got to her desk, she was returning her comm to its charging cradle.

She said, “Good morning, Doug. Kevin said for you to join him in his office.”

“Thanks, Ann.”

I made small talk with Ann, while my bodyguards checked out Kevin’s office. When they said it was safe, Cindy and Kendrick followed me into the office and my bodyguards took up positions in the reception area.

“Morning, Doug. You’re looking good. Marriage must agree with you.”

“Thanks, Kevin. My wives take real good care of me. You seem to be doing fairly well yourself.”

“Yes, but my wife has been on me about not getting enough exercise. I keep teasing her, that instead of exercising, I should just cut back on all the good food she serves me. She says I should do both.

“I got your Twixt, Kevin, about needing to speak with me about the Banking Guild and Councilman Wharton. Nothing serious, I hope.”

“Not really. I was talking with Maribel a week ago. While I was there, she was informed that Cain Wharton’s family convinced him to step down from his position. His grandson, Zariah Wharton, will replace him in a year. Between now and the time Cain steps down, Zariah will work with Cain to learn the job and develop relations with the representatives of the other member worlds. Maribel is planning on having Zariah assume Cain’s position on her committee.”

“That is good to hear, Doug. Cain Wharton has been around for a long time and it would be a shame if his medical problems destroyed his reputation. Hopefully, his grandson will be as good of a politician as he was.

“Any idea when your Twixt route to Earth will be operational. Handling communications between you and Maribel’s committee is interesting, but I would really like to stop being the middle man in the communication link.”

Kendrick said, “A year and ten Slave World months from now, Kevin, assuming of course that there are no serious problems with the installation. However, I suspect Maribel will continue to task you with aiding Doug with various Guild matters that relate to his Ambassadorial mission.”

Kevin said, “I can live with that. I won’t have to deal with the onerous part and will still be able to be involved in what is happening. What did you want to know about the Banking Guild, Doug?”

I said, “I asked Kendrick to approach the Banking Guild about installing a bank on Earth. He told me about the situation he ran into on Slave World when he approached the Banking Guild. They told him they didn’t have the funding to start a new bank. His explanation made me wonder if there wasn’t some reason other than a shortage of capital to not fund a new bank.”

“What other reason might there be, Doug?”

“I hate to seem paranoid, but a while back, I received a series of Twixt messages from multiple planets containing death threats. The police investigated and were unable to identify the senders. It was impressed on me that I have one or more enemies in the Multiverse. I don’t know who they are, but the little I know about them indicates they are very powerful people. Such a person might be able to influence the Banking Guild in order to create problems for me. Have you heard of anything that would indicate that the Banking Guild is unable or unwilling to establish a bank on Earth?”

“No, nothing like that has come to my attention. But, I stay in touch with the Trade Guilds more than the Financial Guilds, so I’m not someone who would know about the Banking Guild’s activities. I can ask around if you want me to do so.”

“All right, but I would prefer that my interest in the Banking Guild not come to their attention. Go ahead and check with your contacts, but don’t make a big issue of it. I will be at the Trinity for the next week. If you hear anything, comm me or leave me a message at the Trinity to comm you. I’ll contact you before I leave if I haven’t heard from you.

“Those are the only two pressing matters that I needed to talk with you about, Kevin. While I was meeting with Maribel in Timson, I gave her my reports, so you won’t need to pass anything on to her. I was wondering if you had anything for me.”

“No, things have been rather quiet lately. Perhaps it has something to do with Cain retiring.”

“That’s possible, Keven.

“My second matter is, awhile back, Maribel told me she might be able to come up with several tasks that the Trade Guilds could do to help me open Earth quicker. However, she had no funding to pay for their assistance. I was wondering if she passed those tasks on to you and how the Trade Guilds responded to helping me without being paid for their time.”

“Yes, I recalled your wanting to get the Guilds involved as a means of keeping them from pushing you to complete your task of opening Earth to trade quicker than you feel it can be done. I also remembered us talking about your not wanting them involved, but thinking that making them part of the process was better than fighting with them.

“She sent me four major, labor-intensive tasks. With the scope of the tasks and your desires in mind, I took a couple of days to decide on the best way to present a request for help. I decided to approach the local Council of Guilds’ representative.

“When I met with the Council’s representative, I explained that you had talked with Maribel about needing help to get things done quicker, so you could declare Earth open for trade as soon as possible. I presented the request for help as if it were coming from the Multiverse Government. I then gave him Maribel’s list of tasks and discussed them with him. He seemed eager to start working on the tasks, until I informed him that Maribel had no budget from which she could pay for the Council’s assistance. At that point, he let me know that he did not have the power to commit the Council of Guilds to such large tasks without some form of recompense. He told me he would forward the list of tasks to the Council of Guilds to see if they were willing to do the tasks without pay. I haven’t heard anything from him, and I suspect that I won’t hear anything in the future.

“If the Council of Guilds doesn’t do anything to help with these tasks, you can point to them failing to assist you as a reason why you are taking so long in declaring Earth open for trade. That should be a good means of getting them to back off and not pressure you. If they eventually do step up and assist you, you and Maribel can always give them more to do. As long as there is work to be done and progress is being made toward opening Earth, they can’t fault you for not opening Earth before it is ready to be opened.”

“That is sort of true, Kevin. Unfortunately, Earth is a very difficult place in which to get something done. I have a plan that I developed for preparing Earth for engaging in trade with the Multiverse. I am discovering that things are not going to be as easy to do as I thought they would be when I made my plan.

“I don’t want to go into the specifics, but I’ve recently realized that there will be a big problem selling merchandise on Earth. This specific problem will take a long time to overcome and will probably delay my opening Earth to trade by at least five to ten years. I suspect there will also be additional problems that will further delay my efforts. Once I open Earth for trade, the other traders will encounter the same types of problems I will be having. This problem will initially result in them experiencing a very low volume of trade.

“For now, we need to forget about soliciting help from the Guilds. When I talked with Maribel, we decided that getting the Guilds to help me might create a major problem for us with the Council of Affiliated Worlds. We don’t want that to happen, so don’t ask for help again. If Maribel can devise a way to get the Guilds to help without causing a problem, we may want to pursue that in the future.

During my meeting with Kevin, we discussed many additional topics that seemed relatively unimportant including several changes in the D-Hopping Guild’s policies. Our discussions lasted until almost lunchtime, so I invited Kevin and Ann to join me for lunch. After lunch, I had my meeting with Sergei Magnusson to discuss my security arrangements. His office was much smaller than the Guild’s office, so most of my security detail had to remain outside with our vehicles after they checked out his office.

Sergei said, “It’s nice to see you again, Doug, and you to Kendrick. How are things on Earth?”

With someone like Sergei that question could be taken at least two ways. I suppose it didn’t matter what I interpreted his question to mean, when we finished discussing my selected interpretation, he would probably ask me about the other interpretation. Yarl Wilson, Sergei’s crew foreman, had undoubtedly briefed Sergei on everything that had happened prior to his returning to Vora. I decided to interpret his question as related to my day-to-day activities on Earth rather than a request for information about the security system his people installed for me on Earth.

I said, “Fairly good, Sergei. Since Yarl and his crew finished installing our temporary living site’s security equipment, I’ve been busy and life has been very interesting.

“My Embassy is under construction, I’m working with Sereine to establish the Trade Checkpoint, and I’m working on developing relations with the leaders of Earth’s nations and political organizations.

“After taking care of many pressing matters, my wives and I finally found time to go on our honeymoon. We took a cruise on an ocean liner that caters to vacationers and visited a number of interesting places on Earth. There was an unfortunate incident on the ship and the incident has led to a number of problems that will plague me for the next few years. The incident itself started out as a minor disagreement over religious beliefs between a religious bigot and his family and my wives and me. During the incident, my wives and I unfortunately revealed a number of things about us and about the Multiverse culture that many of Earth’s people didn’t know and believe are wrong.

“After we returned from our honeymoon, my staff and I started to work on fixing the four main problems this incident caused. Things got to be rather exciting one morning when an assassin tried to kill me. The security system stopped the bullet he fired at me, so his assassination attempt failed, but he escaped. The Earth police have done everything that they can, but they haven’t been able to identify the assassin.

“Matt and Bill have a couple of questions about the surveillance capabilities of the system. The assassin made his approach at night and the distance from him to the camera and low-light conditions made it difficult to see much detail on the film. Matt was wondering if there are better cameras than the ones you installed.”

“I’ll look into it, Doug. I seem to recall your cameras were the best on the market. However, your computer system was not adequate for using the camera’s high resolution capability. A better camera won’t help if you can’t use its high resolution settings. What else did they want to know?”

“Bill was curious about the sensors mounted on the towers. Can they detect heat and at what distance. He was also curious if the person is not moving, will the system define an immobile heat source as a threat?”

“Yes, the sensors can detect heat, but the distance has to be less than a hundred feet. The sensors were intended to detect someone entering your ranch. A close, stationary heat source wasn’t considered. Here in the Multiverse, an assassin would use an energy rifle at a distance beyond sensor range. The situation on Earth is different, so I will have to consult with Harry about what changes can be made to detect and report close, stationary heat sources. Anything else?”

“No, that is all they wanted to know. Anyway, those are the main things that have been keeping me busy on Earth.

Sergei said, “It sounds to me like you’ve been busy, Doug.

“Tell me more about the assassination attempt?”

“There is not too much more to tell, Sergei. We don’t know what motivated the attempt. The details of the attempt seem to indicate the assassin was a professional, but he left no useable evidence behind when he escaped. All we really know is we failed to detect him before he fired his rifle at me and the force field kept me from getting killed. My security people responded to the force field activating, but weren’t able to find him. The police examined the burned-out remains of the vehicle he used, but weren’t able to obtain any useable evidence.”

“Yes, I can see why everyone thinks the assassin was a professional. I was wondering if he might have been sent by one of your enemies here in the Multiverse. Based on what you said, it is highly unlikely that your enemy used a Link Hopper to follow you back to Earth. My guess is you have an enemy on Earth who wants to stop you from doing something.”

“We hadn’t considered the possibility the assassin came from the Multiverse, since everything we know about the assassin indicates he is from Earth. The manner in which the assassination attempt was carried out makes it highly unlikely that the assassin was from the Multiverse. The assassin was familiar with the operation of Earth’s automobiles and my former police officers told me the rifle he used is not the type of weapon someone from the Multiverse would use. My security system’s equipment is easy to see from a distance and he evidently did not recognize the equipment and was unaware of its capabilities. All of that supports our theory that the assassin is from Earth.

“The attempt on my life took place a short while after the incident with the bigot that occurred on my honeymoon. My security people tell me that the short amount of time between that incident and the assassination attempt makes it highly unlikely for that incident to be related to the assassin. The only other possibilities are a political or business rival attempting to end my involvement with Earth. There have been no indications that I have noticed that indicates a serious problem with either group. So we have tightened up our security and we are looking for someone who has a reason to kill me.

“Anyway, the reason for my visit with you is mainly about my new estate on Poppen. During this trip, I learned that a security system was to be installed on my estate, but the details of this system seem to be missing, and I’ve been told you would provide me with the missing details. There is also a matter of a code word that the Multiverse Government has provided to a number of my associates. What do you know about the code word?”

“Maribel provided the code word to me. She told me it was part of an emergency program the Multiverse Government instigated to protect the major players in the financial world. She also explained its use. I’m not sure why the Multiverse Government decided the code word was needed now, but I’m surprised they didn’t implement such a program earlier.”

“I don’t understand the need for the code word, Sergei, and why would the major players need an emergency program?”

“Doug, there have been a number of situations over the past two hundred years that resulted in problems for one or more of the major players and their associates. The situations were targeted at disrupting their trade and financial activities. Fortunately, the situations didn’t result in any of them being killed or injured. In a few of those situations, a code word would have resulted in actions to protect not only the major player, but also the other people they dealt with in their business activities.

“Right now, it seems to me that you are being targeted by someone. If that someone initiates an attack on you, it is possible that the code word would help you to survive a prolonged attack.”

“Sergei, as I told Maribel, I don’t want to come across as an ultra-rich property owner who is using political pull to get what he wants, and the political resentment of my using the code word would probably cause me many problems in the future.”

“Doug, I don’t think the Multiverse Government intends for you to use the code word to gain political dominance over the local politicians. My understanding is the code word is to be used when an adversary launches a physical, political, or financial attack on you, your home, or your businesses and the attack threatens your life or the lives of your friends and associates.

“The Multiverse Government made the political leaders of the worlds on which everyone protected by the program live and on the worlds where they do business aware of the emergency program and the code word assigned to anyone protected by the program. For example, if you were to call one of Slave World’s political leaders and used the code word, they would ensure you immediately received adequate police protection and they would also send an emergency Twixt to notify the Multiverse Government of your problem. The Multiverse Government would initiate the actions necessary to put down the attack, find out who was behind it, and take any actions, legal or otherwise, necessary to prevent a reoccurrence.”

“Maribel didn’t explain things to me that way, Sergei.”

“Maribel is a politician, Doug. She isn’t as blunt as I am. Now what do you want to know about your security system?”

“From what I have been told, it is similar to the one you installed for me on Earth, but with a few differences in capabilities. What are those differences, Sergei?”

“Are you aware of the no-fly zones authorized by planetary governments, and the laws associated with those zones?”

“Sure. All of us licensed to fly hover vehicles know what will happen if we enter a no-fly zone. Our vehicles are programed to detect and avoid those areas. If we were to accidentally enter such an area, we would get an audible and visual beacon alert in our vehicle, then a verbal warning, and finally we would be fired on. But, I haven’t heard of that ever happening.”

“It has happened in the past, Doug, but the Planetary Government blocked the release of information about the incidents. That is why you haven’t heard about the incidents. From what I learned, in almost all of the cases, the owner was a do-it-yourselfer and had worked on their hover vehicle. Apparently they disabled the vehicle’s no-fly zone detection and warning equipment. The government investigators believe they accidentally disabled the equipment while they were working on a different part of their vehicle; but no one is sure if that is true for they were killed and their hover cars destroyed. Personally, I can’t think of any reason for someone to intentionally disable the equipment.

“A no-fly warning system would not have been of any use to you on Earth, so we didn’t install the system on your ranch, but we did install a system on your Hausen estate. If an unauthorized vehicle were to approach your estate, their vehicle’s warning system would alert them. Once the intrusion is detected, your security people can take manual control of the system. They have the capability of determining if the vehicle is an authorized visitor. If not, they can define the level of response to be used in stopping the intrusion and they can transmit a verbal warning to the operator of the vehicle. Such a warning is received by the vehicle’s emergency system, which is automatically activated whenever the vehicle is in the air.”

“You wanted me to have a laser cannon. Did you install one on my Hausen property?”

“No, Doug, installing military grade weapons would have been excessive on a Multiverse planet like Poppen. We did install laser turrets like the ones we installed on your ranch.”

“Any other differences, Sergei?”

“Yes there are a few additional minor differences. I have a briefing package that you can take with you to review. It contains all of the information you are likely to need about your security system. You can go through the package at your leisure and I will answer any questions you may have about the system.”

Sergei gave me the briefing package, which was rather thick, before we returned to the hotel. After our evening meal, I contacted my parents to confirm I would be coming to visit them tomorrow.

When we were ready to hop to Willibald the next morning, I hopped everyone to the backyard of my parents’ home.

My bodyguards checked out the house and then set up a defensive perimeter around the house. Sandy, Carla, Betty, Cindy, Sereine, Misty, and my mom took over the living room. My dad, Andy, Fitz, Kendrick, and I sat around the dining room table. Our ladies made sure that we had mugs, plates, a platter of snacks, and an urn of coffee before they settled in with my mom for another gabfest. I later found out the topics were mostly related to the upcoming weddings and my wives’ pregnancies. We men had other things to discuss.

Dad started it off with, “Your mom told me about you being shot at on Earth. Is that a common thing for people on Earth?”

“Yeah, Dad. That is far more common than I and most of the people on Earth find acceptable.”

“Why is it more acceptable on Earth than it is here in the Multiverse?”

“I’m not sure, Dad. I don’t think it is a matter of being acceptable on Earth for most of the people I’ve talked with find it objectionable. I believe the lack of the public’s reaction to the shootings is caused by peoples’ tolerance to violence; they just accept it as something they can’t change. The violent people also have a very negative reaction to seeking out mental healthcare to help them cope with their problems. Actually, the violent people don’t see their attitude regarding violence as a problem.